Gwyneth Paltrow spotted on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, and UNC Twitter goes wild
Actress and Goop creator Gwyneth Paltrow was spotted on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill on Monday, and UNC Twitter lost its mind.
“Was no one going to tell me Gwyneth Paltrow was on Franklin st???” tweeted one student.
“Unc was in full chaos today. the fire alarm went off in like three different buildings all around the same time, north campus had a huge power outage, and gwyneth paltrow was apparently on franklin like ????” tweeted another.
Though her supposed appearance had some questioning who they saw:
“Saw gwenyth [sic] paltrow eating at i <3 new york pizza ????” one student tweeted.
Claire Bunschoten said she didn’t realize the Oscar-winning actress may have been standing in line with her at Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews until she saw people start tweeting about possible Paltrow sightings.
“I passed her on Franklin and then noticed her again when she came into Epilogue after me, just because she was dressed so well,” said Bunschoten, a Ph.D. student at UNC, in an email to The News & Observer.
“The Epilogue staff were very discreet and got her order out quickly despite the busy Monday afternoon rush,” she said. “And, selfishly, I only noticed this because her matcha came out before mine.”
And just when it seemed like it was all just a bunch of rumors about the Marvel star, a video clip emerged of Paltrow, in the flesh, standing on Franklin Street with the Carolina Coffee Shop in the background.
Paltrow wore a white blouse, white pants and white sneakers with black bows. Gold necklaces draped around her neck, and she carried a pair of black rimmed glasses in her right hand.
As she stood near the stoplight in front of the CVS building on Franklin, she looked bemused as her photo was being taken.
The caption on the video: “Yaaaa this happened today.”
With visual proof, a screengrab from the video — spotted on a student’s Instagram Story — started making the rounds.
Why is Gwyneth Paltrow in North Carolina?
It’s unclear what brought Paltrow to North Carolina.
While it may seem like a more-than-unusual destination for the A-list celeb, Paltrow has visited the Triangle before. Back in 2012, she was in North Carolina to film “Iron Man 3” in Wilmington, with some scenes shot in the Triangle.
“Just arrived in Raleigh, N.C. to start Ironman 3! Any restaurant recommendations?” Paltrow tweeted on June 5, 2012.
Her daughter, Apple Martin, whom she shares with ex-husband, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, is 17 years old and could be touring colleges. (On Tuesday, students at the University of Virginia tweeted about seeing her on their Charlottesville campus.)
If that’s the case, she’s the second celeb parent recently spotted at a Triangle university. Just last month, Jerry Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica Seinfeld, were seen in Durham dining at Parker & Otis, a restaurant in the American Tobacco Campus, The News & Observer reported.
The Seinfelds were in Durham to drop off their two kids, Sascha and Julian, at Duke University.
“#2 is launched,” Jessica Seinfeld wrote on Instagram.
UNC and Hollywood’s paths have crossed before with UNC alums like actor Andy Griffith, comedian Lewis Black, actor Billy Crudup (now winning Emmys for “The Morning Show” on Apple+) and director Peyton Reed (who has directed the Ant-Man Marvel movies, though none have featured Paltrow).
This story was originally published September 21, 2021, 2:53 PM.
